Exum cleared of injury as Boomers’ tilt gains pace

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Exum cleared of injury as Boomers’ tilt gains pace

Dante Exum has been cleared of injury after his early exit from the Boomers’ Olympic warm-up win over Puerto Rico.

The Dallas Mavericks’ NBA guard sent a scare through Australia’s camp when he fell hard and was assisted from the court in the Boomers’ 90-75 win in Orleans, south of Paris, on Saturday morning (AEST).

Fears of a neck injury and concussion have been allayed, team officials telling AAP his absence from the remainder of the game was purely precautionary.

Toyko bronze medallist Exum shapes as a key piece of a new-look Boomers squad led by 21-year-old guard Josh Giddey when their campaign begins against Spain on July 27.

Giddey’s (19 points, five assists, four rebounds) top form continued against a quality Puerto Rico side led by New Orleans guard Jose Alvarado, who missed all five field-goal attempts and was kept scoreless in 24 minutes of court time.

No slouches, Puerto Rico beat Italy, Lithuania and Mexico to win their Olympic qualification tournament on home soil this month.

Patty Mills (15 points, four rebounds, three assists) showed plenty on the defensive end in a statement – Australia finished 29 points superior in the 21 minutes he was on court.

*********** coach Brian Goorjian was pleased to get minutes into veteran swingman Joe Ingles (11 points on four-of-four *********), guard Matthew Dellavedova and centre Duop Reath after the trio were used sparingly in games against the ******* States and Serbia.

Australia will play France in their final pre-Olympic hit-out in Orleans on Monday morning (AEST) ahead of their first pool game against world No.2 Spain in Lille.

Australia lost the bronze medal play-off to the Spanish at Rio’s 2016 Games by one point, and again at the 2019 World Cup in double overtime, in China.

The Boomers face a mighty task to advance from their group as they are also drawn against an NBA-stacked Canada and a Giannis Antetokounmpo-led Greece, who qualified his country for the first time since 2008.

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